XMX - An X Protocol Multiplexor

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XMX is a standalone utility for sharing an X Window System session on multiple X displays. It allows users to see and interact with the same applications at the same time from different locations. XMX takes advantage of the networked nature of the X Window System by acting as an intermediary between X clients and X servers. In this way, XMX works with any X clients and any X servers, without the need to modify either.

XMX provides a WYSIWIS (What You See Is What I See) environment; it paints the same graphics on all participating displays. The shared client applications appear to each participant in a virtual root window which is subject to local window management. In this way, the shared X session coexists with each user's private X session.

The X client applications which are shared via XMX are unaware that they are being viewed or controlled by more than one user. Existing, single-user X client applications may be shared using XMX without recompilation, relinking or access to source code.

XMX is designed as an application sharing server. It provides both the mechanism of application sharing and a way to control the shared session from other programs. Like X, it leaves policy decisions to application programs. In this way, XMX may be used as a component in any of a variety of systems that require application sharing.

This software was developed at Brown University for use in our electronic classroom.

John Bazik